to support extinction rebellion - more London action tomorrow

[54321nought]

I am not sure what, but I have seen their previous demonstrations, and support their cause.

We were given badges at one event, and travelled home on public transport wearing them, and received absolutely nothing but 100% support from other travellers, which was nice, as I expected some hostility, publicly wearing their badges while roads in London were closed by them

Presumably you walked or went by camel then? You didn't fly to these places? I assume this was when you were teaching and a single parent? Or a scientist? I'm sorry OP, but I don't know what to believe about you! Especially as you still believe that huge numbers of working class children when to university in the 1970s.

I will never forget Emma Thompson on that boat, with her constant trans atlantic flights saying 'she cared so much about CC'

You lived in all of Asia. That's like me saying I live in Europe so am an expert on Danish people and culture.

Is that like when you claimed universities were full of the working poor in the 50s/60s and today's retired professionals all came from poor back grounds. Because you had personal experience of it through your job?

Because that wasn't true.

Or your claim you knew most of XR were retired professionals because you knew them personally.

That wasn't true either.

Uh huh.

Swum there and back?

I lived and worked in Asia too op. Also a teacher. I think you can't really generalise either way. There are people living very frugal lives there a stone's throw away from some very materialistic resource guzzlers.

But I never met anyone I thought who'd be selfish enough to glue themselves to public transport and stop the emergency services getting through. That seems to be a very UK mindset.

@starrynight87

I will never forget Emma Thompson on that boat, with her constant trans atlantic flights saying 'she cared so much about CC'

You know, if I was a big oil company and I wanted huge swathes of the country to regard those who care for the environment as a bunch of dramatic, virtue signalling hypocrites who are a nuisance to all around them, you couldn't do a much better job than start up extinction rebellion.

BTW, I would like to explain that I am not usually rude, but I am exasperated.

If you really want to get people on board with examining their carbon footprint and making changes you have to do it in a way that is more carrot than stick.

Pissing people off, making things awkward for people, costing people money, shouting at people, stopping people using public transport and going to work or to hospital appointments and Greta Thumberg doing her hard stare is all nonsensical and childish.
It is only going to get peoples backs up so much so they will do the complete opposite.

Non of their actions bring attention to climate change. Or do anything to stop it. Just the opposite.

Last time they were in London it cost me £25 because I had to take a cab because they had closed the tube station. How can a single cab journey across London be good for the planet. I doubt I was the only one who had to resort to cars and taxis

Think of all the damage their protest was responsible for.

From what I read, it's all about the big companies changing their policies that will help CC, not making commuters late for work or interrupting our emergency services.

@starrynight87

From what I read, it's all about the big companies changing their policies that will help CC, not making commuters late for work or interrupting our emergency services.

I think that's the issue tbe governement and big companies don't care that pp had to pay an extortionate amount to get home.

They don't care, that many people couldn't get to work and get paid.

Or people couldn't get to medical appointments.

So they do this to normal people and it doesn't change a thing. The general public just get pissed off. The more piaaed off the general public are, the less the support them and then big companies and governement have even better reason to ignore them. Pissing off the public may not be the aim, but it happening and its not working in their favour.

Yes, 100%

@54321nought

I wasn't sure about joining them, but this thread has really made my mind up to do it.

They are succeeding in that they appear to be causing massive disruption, which is their aim, and in doing so are pressurising government and businesses, which is also their aim.

It is heartening to see the support they have from some posters. Quite a lot of other posters are simply people who pour out ignorant vitriol and are best disregarded on whatever thread they are doing it on.

Some posters have been badly inconvenienced, and I'm sorry this has happened, but the war on climate change the most important issue, for everyone, including you, even if you don't know it, and that's why these things are being done.

For those of you who say you support fighting climate change but don't support ERs methods, you prefer to do other things, that's great, fighting in any way is great, and thank you

but for me, you have helped me make up my mind to join in and fight the ER way

Some posters have been badly inconvenienced, and I'm sorry this has happened, but the war on climate change the most important issue, for everyone, including you, even if you don't know it, and that's why these things are being done

@54321nought. This is one of the most smug, patronising things that I have ever read. How dare you.
‘Badly inconvenienced’?? But it’s for our own good and we just don’t know it yet?? Who do you think you are?

Why don’t you and your ‘retired professionals’ have a whip round and give us the £480 you cost us….never mind the additional fees for the payday loan we had to take to get through the month. Or do you need that to pay for Emma’s flights?

You haven’t even had the common decency to reply to any question that I’ve asked you.

You have done more damage to your beloved XR with this thread than any amount of discarded KFC boxes on London’s streets.

Nice to have my betters lecturing me, yet again, on why I don't understand.

Hard to agree with any action that blocks roads for ambulances and cause people to have their lives put in danger.
They also blocked people who were rushing to their dying family's side, their last chance to say goodbye taken away, something that can never be replaced.

@Hekatestorch

You lived in all of Asia. That's like me saying I live in Europe so am an expert on Danish people and culture.

Is that like when you claimed universities were full of the working poor in the 50s/60s and today's retired professionals all came from poor back grounds. Because you had personal experience of it through your job?

Because that wasn't true.

Or your claim you knew most of XR were retired professionals because you knew them personally.

That wasn't true either.

This. All of this.

I work (or worked, pre-covid) in various parts of Asia for months at a time with industrial and commercial clients in oil and gas, heavy industries, shipping, etc.

I can't imagine where you were that gives you the idea Asian countries aren't industrialised and polluting, OP?

Have a look at somewhere like Tuas in Singapore for an example of what's going on - not just the port but the mammoth desalination plants (huge energy consumers) oil refineries - some owned by Sinopec, some by Western multi-nationals.

Visit Karachi and see the pollution and the scale of oil refining.

Have a look at China's coal production and consumption - they're building coal plants at an unbelievable rate.

@DoubleShotEspresso

God I've got two central London appointments this week with DC (SEND/medical). Last time these nut jobs did this we list our appointment I really hope they are stopped by the police this time.

So have I - only been waiting 22 months for one of them. However, it's a very early appointment, so I'm hoping that XR don't believe in leaving their homes in the suburbs at 6am, as if they're infesting the London Bridge area by 7, I'm screwed, not just for that appointment, but for getting home in time for my medication delivery afterwards.

Badly inconvenienced’?? But it’s for our own good and we just don’t know it yet?? Who do you think you are?

^This. Specially the last bit. Who do you (and all the other bullies) think you are?

My daughter had an appointment at the Evelina at 9.30 this morning and we left there at 12. We didn't see any protesters, there were a lot of police about. Hope all goes smoothly for both of you too

Having just seen the images of smoke bombs being set off I have to wonder how they class as environmentally friendly?

@CloseEncountersOfTheTurdKind

My daughter had an appointment at the Evelina at 9.30 this morning and we left there at 12. We didn't see any protesters, there were a lot of police about. Hope all goes smoothly for both of you too

Sorry, that was for @DoubleShotEspresso and @NeverDropYourMooncup

They are succeeding in that they appear to be causing massive disruption, which is their aim

I agree they are causing massive disruption

and in doing so are pressurising government and businesses, which is also their aim

Where do you get this idea from?

How is making me take a £25 cab journey pressurising the government

How is dancing in the streets and stopping people getting to their hospital appointments/work/interviews pushing big businesses to take you seriously.

One does not correlate with the other.

What do you think will happen if XR’s actions stop NeverDropYourMooncup and DoubleShotEspresso getting to their appointments
Do you honestly think Boris is going to suddenly come up with new laws that will stop climate change.
We have a more immediate crisis brewing in Afghanistan.

Aren’t most of the cabinet supposed to be on holiday anyway
XR plan protests to bring London to a standstill .

Talk about wrong place and wrong time. Someone hasn’t read the room.

In the days of the suffragettes disruption worked because there was very little affect on the lower classes. They specifically targeted locations that gave the impact they wanted www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/overview/startsuffragette-/
Disruption tactics today have little affect on the people with the power to promote change on a global level . For example group glues themselves together under a lorry and stops traffic. Most vehicles will leave their engines running, harming the environment, a core of protesters will leave behind rubbish and all this is caught and promoted by main stream media. Add to this numerous examples of people losing pay, not getting to essential medical appointments and it results in a failure for XR to promote hood practice and a win for those who have no real desire to make rapid change

The rationale behind xr seems to be that you only need 3.5 % of the population involved in protest to effect change.

I don't know how they came up with those figures, as it seems to me surely other control factors need to be taken into account. For example women's rights gained significant progress because both world wars required them.to step onto roles traditionally meant for men. Presumably this made it hard to role back, particularly as some families would have been better off financially with women taking paid work.

If you only need 3.5% on favour then I would expect to see less favourable changes being enacted.
I bet there's at least 5% of the country that are anti Vax.
Or BritainFirst type movements.
I bet around 3.5% of the country are vegan or vegetarian. If we march could we get the government to stop meat production?

I doubt it.

I would assume that 3.5 need to march but the majority need to back them.
Xr seem to think a few outliers gluing themselves to trains will break the system.
Not sure why they think that.

@mustlovegin

They might not get a choice tbh

How about contraception, to start with?

not much use for the people already in existence, is it?

@ChaneySays

My partner spent years working for the UKs biggest waste/recycling company and always said these people would make a MUCH bigger environmental impact by simply going around and removing the black bags which people put in recycling bins at work.

Over 40% of their dry mixed recyclables used to go to landfill due to contamination as the tip won't accept it with black bags in and can't pick them out by hand for risk of needles etc, and because it's not really viable once they get mixed in.

Millions of tons of cardboard/plastic across the UK getting buried each year and then more trees are cut down to replace it. But rooting through bins doesn't seem quite as revolutionary does it!

Thank you @ChaneySays

This is the most useful post on this whole thread….certainly more useful than anything I’ve heard from the XR supporters.

I didn’t know this and I will now make it my business to ensure that I spread this information. It’s easy to do and it makes a difference without causing any harm to anyone. Perfect 😊